The inherent dangers of prescription drugs require cautious management and recordkeeping. Current methods of managing prescription drugs include labeling drugs with a variety of information that identify and describe the drugs. Such information includes the origin of the drug product, dosage strength, expiration date, lot number, quantity and invoice number. The inclusion of such prescription drug information can provide significant safeguards against accidental or mistaken consumption or distribution.
Even with current safeguards, it is often difficult to ascertain the authenticity of the provided drug information. Thus, counterfeit drug products are able to enter the drug supply chain undetected by providing false or misleading drug information on the label. Drug counterfeiters may also falsify or alter drug delivery records to further facilitate the entry of counterfeit drugs into the supply chain. To combat this issue, many drug manufacturers and distributors are moving toward providing drug pedigree information (i.e., a documented history of a drug product's chain of custody) and associating the information with the physical product. In fact, some states have made it mandatory to include pedigree information in any acquisition, sale or trade of drug products.
However, various states or organizations that regulate such pedigree information may impose differing standards for formatting and transmitting the information. As such, a drug company must insure that the formatting of the pedigree information complies with the regulations and standards of the recipient's organization or state. In order to meet these needs, companies have implemented electronic transmission systems to facilitate the management of pedigree information. For many drug companies, however, implementing such an electronic method and/or system to comply with multiple varying standards would require a tremendous investment of resources. For example, a drug company may be required to purchase new computer equipment, acquire drug tracking components and update software in order to handle the various information format standards for the drug pedigree information. Even using paper documentation to abide by the pedigree requirements, some companies may find it difficult to keep pace with companies using electronic management solutions.
As such, methods and systems are needed for facilitating the management and transmission of drug pedigree information to enable drug companies having varying resources to comply with various information standards.